Abstract
This paper describes the very early stage of CMC in CSCL. A comparative evaluation on two classes for novice software training whose students had different levels of human relations was studied. In particular, we examined the initial process of CMC and how students reached the first point of cooperation on given task. The following results are obtained. 1. In spite of the levels of acquaintance among students, discussions developed in the same direction when roles in the group were given to participants. 2. Difference of inter-personal relational levels affected the period of time by the first point of cooperation on learning tasks. These results suggest that there is room for improvement in instructions on students' self-disclosure, connection between roles and tasks and effective moderation of CMC.
